I was about five or six and I had a really cool Popeye nightlight. It was the kind you just plug in, and it starts putting out rays. No switch.  Which meant it was unplugged the rest of the time.  I’ll never forget my first good electric shock, which came from ol’ Popeye. I’d forgotten to plug the light in and really needed it to be on (it was dark!), so I felt around with my fingers trying to plug it in. POW!! Mild house current shock.  It sure made my fingers get that prickly electric feeling.  I was pretty sure I was okay, so I made no fuss about it and went back to bed. I was pretty sure I was to blame somehow…

I’ve been getting some riding in this week. My commute to work is a whopping 2.7 miles. I found, however, that my forks are bottoming out. I put a lowering kit in it a few months ago and it seems to have been too much. I think I’ll go back to stock–I still have the springs that came with it.  Fork oil ain’t cheap, but I can’t stand that sound and feel of the fork innards beating the crap out of themselves.  It handles just fine either way, it just looks cooler a bit lower.  Meh–bikes is for riding, not for lookin’ at.

Oh, I almost forgot. Check out the latest from Kevin Moore at Bikes and Buddies-Mini Bike Mayhem.  Can’t go wrong with a title like that!

The story writing process cracks me up. I’m wracking my brain with where to go next. Sitting at my desk thinking (even though it’s always better to write than think).

Nothing…

Then a quick nap captures me for a few minutes. A cartoonist with a demanding day job and a daily gym habit gets no rest.

I wake up with clarity for this week and next in the Jones saga. Stick around, and maybe grab a hanky. If I do good, you’ll need to wipe a tear or two. If it’s lame you can use it for a booger vault just in case nose picking becomes a more interesting pursuit.

Sometimes our choices are made for us.  When to stop, when to camp, when to potty…

A little re-run from last Fall. I’m wiped out!

One of the songs that seems to play in my head a lot lately is Elvis Costello’s “Six Figered Man”. No idea why, but it’s a cool song. Dig it:

Meh. There’s fate and then there’s character. Likely they feed of each other. Unless you don’t believe in fate.

I’m never sure I’m drawing mirrors the right size, in spite of the fact that Jones’ bike (or one an awful lot like it) lives in my garage.  One way to solve that little dilemma is to actually put my ass in the saddle once in a while.

Which I did today, albeit for a pretty short ride. I rode the brutal three miles to work to pick up some stuff to plan tomorrow’s lessons. As I was walking back to the bike, I noticed how not big the rear view mirrors on it are. Then it came to me.

I actually got confused with speedometers, believe it or not. A few years ago I was reading a bike feature in Hot Bike about a build by Wink Eller of Wink’s Performance (Newport Beach?). When asked about the lack of a speedometer, his reply had something to do with getting speed reports at the drag strip or from the CHP.

Clearly had nothing to do with rear view mirrors, which is perfect since I didn’t have to steal Wink’s line for the strip.  I’m wildly guessing, however, that this little doozey isn’t unique to me either.

It’s been way too long since our intrepid hero had a proper debauch.  He’s nearly forgotten who he is!

I recently scored extensions for the legs of my drawing table. I’m 6’5″, and my knees pretty easily find the bottom of it. If I lower the chair I feel like a gorilla riding a mini-bike. It didn’t occur to me that I’d wind up needing an entirely new chair to make it work.  This was the first strip I drew with the extensions and the new drafting chair.  The ink went along pretty smoothly, I thought.

Kevin Moore recently posted another terrific essay at Bikes and Buddies. It looks like another gem, so I recommend heading over and giving it a read. It’s called Pussycat.

Anyway, here you go. Up early tomorrow for the gym, like always.

I actually had no intention of doing a comic for today. As I write this today’s comic is actually today–the day I’m drawing it. Been crazy busy lately, with a little over five weeks left to teach in the semester.  I wound up staying at work until around eight thirty last night doing some tech work on an upcoming performance event in my department. I figured you readers would catch up a day late (again).

But then I woke up and started trying to solve stuff with my eyes open and my head on the pillow. That never works, so I got up and cranked out some art to move the story forward. Up in a few more hours and off to the gym, I’m glad I got this one out.

A day late and a dollar short! I thought briefly about going on hiatus until school gets out. Then I thought about cutting back to two strips a week. Then I started thinking of where I want the story to go and all the other noise cancelled out.

I”m working on a game for the site, sort of a road trip motorcycle game for the web site. I have no idea if you readers will play it–assuming it doesn’t’ suck. I’d like to have a beta version of it some time in May. Your feedback on this is desired.

Thanks for stickin’ by me this spring!

This strip was saved by my personal editor. She got in late from a rigorous round of Bunco (still a mystery to me) when I ran the dialog past her.  The training wheels part was her idea. Originally the panel two dialog (inner monologue?) was the punch line, but not as punchy as I like it to be.  I’ve realized I’m funnier–and so is my strip–because of her.

I rode the bike to work yesterday. First thing Friday morning I’m going out for a bicycle ride, maybe find the pinch bolts that fell off my lower triple tree. I”m guessing, but I think I know where they each fell off.

There’s a certain noise my front end makes when the pinch bolts aren’t right, sort of a heavy metallic “clunk”. I’m now short by one lockwasher to having it together again. It shouldn’t stand in the way of my ride Saturday. I have to say, it was a little nervous riding along with those bolts out, so I took it reeeeal easy. In my mind, the only thing holding the fork tubes onto the bike was the top tree. I later realized the lower tree had them, just not tight and proper. Caution seemed a good approach, even if my commute is a monster 3 miles.

Leven Helm, lead singer for The Band, passed away yesterday, succumbing to throat cancer. Dude did some good music If you were a fan or not, remember also the soldiers who have died much younger than Helm, who was 71 or 72, in service to our country. The cost of service is great-don’t forget our service men and women.

My pal Jimmy sent me this YouTube yesterday. I had no idea I was so close in my representation of Porkins to the cartoon version in Family Guy (I think that’s where this comes from). If you’re not hip to it, Porkins was a character in the original Star Wars movie. I did a little write up on him a few years ago.  Here he is in cartoon:

And here’s his bit of fame in the original: